Printers are certainly getting their 15 minutes of fame.

Earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal reported that a community printer is the unsung amenity that multifamily renters desire most.

And today, in a nod to Shark Week, The Washington Post launched a week-long exposé of the infamous piece of office equipment, declaring, "No other device inspires more fear and loathing than the printer."

Shortly after "Printer Week" was announced on The Washington Post's socials, the scathing comments started rolling in.

"The only good HP printer is a dead, smashed, ground up into tiny pieces HP."

"I understand the concern, but it's a known fact all printers are out to get us. They can sense fear, panic when you're on a deadline. You know I'm right."

Ouch.

One of the major issues with today's printing technology, as pointed out in Tatum Hunter's eye-opening article, is the fact that manufacturers and service providers are collecting personal data and selling it to the highest bidder.

Not cool.

Enter PrintWithMe.

While we can't erase the pain caused by printers past, we can help you experience the power of positive printing.

As Hunter reiterates in the article, PrintWithMe "temporarily stores printed documents with a third-party cloud provider, but only for 24 hours." We're not in the business of profiting off your personal information.

Here's a closer look at the specific safeguards we have in place:

  • Certified SSL and TSL ensure data is encrypted. Passwords are stored in our database after being hashed.
  • Our proprietary Secure Release technology requires users to enter a unique passcode at the printer to release the job.
  • There is zero document retention. All files are deleted within 24 hours.
  • Our devices have no internal hard drives, which eliminates the risk of documents being stored on the printer.
  • We regularly apply software patches to production infrastructure to ensure strong security posture.
  • We are compliant with all existing data privacy laws, including CCPA, which is currently the most stringent.
  • We employ multiple authentication mechanisms to reduce the risk of unauthorized access.

We are grateful to Tatum Hunter and The Washington Post for shedding light on this important topic, especially considering the fact that printing isn't an obvious source of data compromise.

2023 is going to be a landmark year for data privacy legislation. As new laws are enacted, consumers are going to have significant recourse when their information is misused or mishandled, and business owners are going to have to seriously rethink their approach to data management.

Whether you're printing important documents or providing a printing service, PrintWithMe can help you keep personal information out of the wrong hands. We are a trusted printer partner in over 3,500 locations across all 50 states, and we serve over 1 million apartment homes. Since 2014, more than 2 million unique users have printed over 60 million pages.

If you're interested in bringing PrintWithMe to your multifamily property or your business, get in touch. To safely print important documents, find your nearest PrintWithMe kisok.